Friday, January 15, 2010

Webmaster Tips For Moneymaking: Affiliate Programs

As a webmaster, you may be wondering how you can increase the revenue of your web site without having to go through the headache of massive program restructuring or changing the content drastically. One of the simplest and easiest ways to do this is to enter an Affiliate Program.

Quite simply, an Affiliate Program is a marketing agreement between you and another web site that offers certain products and services. The other web site, which is called the "merchant" in the business, pays you a commission based on certain marketing and advertising services you render for them. These services can be as simple or extravagant as you want, based on the complexity you think your site can handle and the changes you want to implement.

If you enter such an agreement with a merchant, your web site then becomes referred to as a "publisher". As a publisher, one of the simplest and easiest ways to earn extra revenue is to enter a per-click and per-ad commission agreement with your merchant. In the per click basis, you simply add links to your web site that redirect people to your merchant's web site. For every person thus redirected, you earn a small fee. The per ad basis means that you actually set up small graphic, flash animation, or even video streaming ads on your web site on behalf of the client. Per-ad affiliate programs are paid on a constant basis, usually per month of ad space.

Aside from these two, there are also "loyalty" and "rebate" programs set up by some merchants that give you electronic coupons and the ability to help people register on line for a discount program from the merchant. In these cases, payment is made in tow ways: one, for every coupon or sign up, you get a commission. Two, every time someone buys a product from the merchant using coupons they got from you or from a discount program you offered, you also get a commission from the products bought.

A third type of affiliate program is perfect for web masters who run personal web sites with their own blog pages, member forums, write their own article content, or even publish their own periodic e-magazines. In an offshoot of the pay per click and pay per ad system, webmasters who run personal web sites can get paid for promoting the products through review articles, a slot on their discussion forums, blogs, as well as through the regular option of adding a link that you get paid for on a per click basis. This option actually appeals to a lot of merchants who feel they are better able to reach customers directly through personal web sites as opposed to "commercialized" methods.

Taking affiliate marketing a step up, you can also choose to become an etailer, short for electronic retailer. As an etailer for your merchant, you become a licensed sales representative that gets relatively larger commissions from direct product sales. This tends to make more money for webmasters who are also aggressive at sales, but in general is too much of a bother for webmasters who prefer to let their web sites run on "autopilot". If direct action is your thing, however, you might want to consider this form of affiliate program.

Lastly, there is also multi level affiliate marketing. This works like the classic multi level marketing programs where sales representatives of a company get commissions not only for direct sales that they personally make, but can also recruit other sales representatives on behalf of the company. They then get extra commissions both from these referrals and the actual sales made by the referrals. On a diminishing returns basis, they can even earn profit from the direct sales of the referrals made by their referrals down the line of the hierarchy. In affiliate marketing, this is done almost exactly the same way, except that instead of sales reps, the web masters find other interested web masters and bring them in as publishers for the merchant. This tends to be a very powerful and self sustaining marketing tool that benefits it's publishers and the merchant IF the network of publishers can be made to rapidly and steadily expand.

Last is the "hybrid" affiliate program. This employs a fusion of most of the methods outlined above, and this can prove to be the most profitable for a hard working web master. It will probably entail the most effort, but can also bring in the largest revenues through multiple, overlapping programs.


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Affiliate Program Marketing

Debt Consolidation Affiliate Programs

Before we delve into the fundamentals of debt consolidation affiliate programs, we should focus our attention first on the true essence of debt consolidation. What does debt consolidation really mean? What benefits can you get out of it? Is it really made to your advantage?

In general, debt consolidation refers to the process by which the debtors are provided with the assistance they need to get out of deep financial problems. This is usually done with the support of a loan provider who is responsible in making the necessary arrangements for you so that you can break free from debts. For this reason, debt consolidation is considered by many as the key to disentangling yourself from the loads of debts you’ve been suffering for years. But you have to take note that it’s not really a form of escaping from your liabilities – it’s more of a solution that helps you prevent further financial troubles and ultimately, rebuild your credit worthiness.

In this day and age, there are a lot of debt consolidation affiliate programs that you can avail to help relieve the debt loads that you’ve been enduring for so long. Debt consolidation affiliate programs specifically denote the joint venture between the loan provider and a sales agent. The loan provider is the so-called debt consolidation agency that does the settlement of your sum unpaid to your creditors while you make monthly remunerations to them. In this manner, it is the loan provider that guides you on how to effectively manage your debts and avoid further loan dilemmas.

Though it’s easier said than done, getting rid of debts really takes a lot of self-control on your part as a debtor. It means keeping in check of how you spend your budget. But with debt consolidation affiliate programs by your side, you can now break away from the snags of your growing debts. You’ll be able to breathe more freely and savor a debt-free life.


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Affiliate Program Marketing

With So Many Affiliate Programs, Which One Should I Choose?

The number one thing you need to do when looking into the myriad of affiliate programs available is to ask questions first before you join any program. You have to do the research about the choices of each program that you are thinking about joining. Get the answers before joining because they will be the deciding factors of what you will be achieving later on.

I have listed here some of the main questions that you need to ask any retailer offering an affiliate program.

"Will it cost me anything to join?" The majority of affiliate programs offered today are free of charge, so why pay for those that charge you something before joining? Unless there is only a very small fee and a very large ROI (Return On Investment), paying to be an affiliate just doesn’t make sense.

"When do they send out the commission checks?" Each program is different, so this is an important question. Some issue their checks once every month, every quarter, etc. Find the one that is best suited to your payment schedule choice. There are many affiliate programs that are setting a minimum earned commission amount that you must meet or exceed in order for them to issue you a check, so be sure to ask if they have a minimum.

"What is their hit per sale ratio?" This very important question tells you what the average number of banner or text link "hits" it takes to generate a sale. A "hit" occurs when someone clicks on the banner or text links. This is based on all affiliate statistics. This ratio is extremely important, as it will tell you approximately how much traffic you need to generate before you can start earning commissions from the sale.

"How will the referrals from my affiliate’s site be tracked and also how long do they stay in the system?" You need to have the confidence that the program will track the people you refer from your site. This is the only way that you will get credit for the sale. The period of time that your referrals stay in the system is also extremely important. The reason is because some visitors do not initially buy the product, but may want to return at a later time to make the purchase. You need to know if you are still going to get credit for the sale, even if it is done a few days or months from a certain day. Most programs track between 45 and 60 days, though some programs track referrals for as long as a year or more.

"What are the kinds of affiliate stats available?" The affiliate program you choose should be offering detailed statistics for your review. These should be available at anytime online. By constantly checking your individual stats, you know how many impressions, hits and sales are already generated from your site. "Impressions" are the number of times your banner or text links are viewed by the visitors of your site.

"Besides the commissions on sales, does the affiliate program also pay for hits and impressions?" It’s best if you can find a program where impressions and hits are also paid, as this will add to your earnings along with the sales commission. This is especially important if the program you are in offers a low sales point to be able to hit any ratio requirement they may have.

"Who is the online retailer you’ll be dealing with?" You need to find out whom you will be doing business with to know if they are a really solid company. Check out the products they are selling and the average sales amounts they are achieving. The more you know about the retailer offering the affiliate program, the easier it is for you to decide if that program is really the right one for you and your site.

"Is the program a one tier or two tier affiliate program?" A single tier affiliate program pays you only for the business you yourself generate. A two-tier program pays you for the business/sales you bring in, plus it also pays you a commission on the sales generated by any sub-affiliate you sponsor under you in the program. Some two-tier programs even pay a small fee for each new affiliate you sponsor. This is a recruitment fee, which usually only goes down one level.

Lastly, "what is the amount of commission paid?" Depending on which market you get into, you’ll find that 5% - 20% is fairly standard commission that most programs pay out. .01% - .05% is a typical amount paid for each hit. If you find a program that also pays you for banner/text-ad impressions, the amount paid is usually not much at all. As you can see from the figures above, you now understand why the average sales amount and hit to sale ratio is a very important fact to know about before getting into any affiliate program.

These are just some of the questions that need to be answered first before you join an affiliate program. You should also become familiar with the many important aspects that your chosen program has before incorporating them into your marketing campaign and website. Ask your affiliate program choices these questions. They can help you select the right program for you and your site from among the many available.

My recommendation for one of the best Affiliate Commision sites going is Commision Junction. They have a wide variety of both affiliate programs and payouts. CJ is certainly worth a look if you want to get serious about this type of Affiliate Marketing.

To your continued success!

Ross "The Pit Boss"


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Affiliate Program Marketing